5 features we’re hoping to see in The Sims 4 Pets

After over a decade of playing the Sims, it’s come to my attention that the Pets expansion has remained one of the most memorable packs. It all started out with The Sims: Unleashed, which was released all the way back in 2002! Back then, our control over the pets and their diversity was limited. Fast forward to The Sims 3: Pets, in which we could customize not only cats and dogs, but horses as well! We’ve gotten some recent clues that a new Pets pack is in the works, and I couldn’t help but wonder what this new expansion might hold for us. While we wait for the Pets to be officially announced in the (hopefully) near future, here are 5 features we’d love to see revamped in this pack.

1) Exotic Pets

Dogs and cats remain the classic pets, but smaller animals have always been a key feature in the Pets expansion. Rodents, turtles, fish, snakes, lizards and parrots! Each of these animals brought a diversity of interactions to the Sims’ lives. It would be amazing to see our Sims build certain skills with their exotic pets, for instance practicing comedy/charisma with parrots, or developing wellness while gazing into a fish tank.

2) Adopt a Pet

While it is still unclear whether or not building our own pet shops will be an option, I believe that adopting a pet remains one of the more realistic traits to be retained from past expansions. Picking up a pet who needs a forever home can prove to be a more rewarding challenge than creating your own!

3) Pet Careers

This feature first came out in The Sims 2: Pets. Sims could choose one of three careers for their pets: Security, Service or Show Biz. These careers would encourage a good relationship between the Sim and their pet, as they need to learn tricks in order to be promoted. Considering the Get To Work expansion made it possible for us to accompany our Sim to their workplace, I think it would be interesting to do the same with the pet.

4) Developing Traits

I loved this trait in The Sims 3: Pets, as it also thoughtfully reflected real life. Your Sim could affect how their pet’s personality developed. This way, pets’ behaviors mirrored their owner’s personalities, and gameplay was more interesting. The pets could acquire traits such as piggy, destructive, quiet or loyal. Of course, we could also manage what traits they gained by controlling them directly, but it was still a nice touch and deepened the pets’ personalities.

5) El Bandito

Remember that little raccoon? Always looking to sift through your trash bin and make a huge mess, that one! Your pets could even get into scuffles with him before he scampered off into the night time. El Bandito was a cute feature in the first edition of the Sims. Generally, I would love to see the return of wild animals within the new Pets expansion. This would bring the Sims and their environment even closer together! It would also be interesting for certain wild animals to only be found in specific neighborhoods, or in Granite Falls.

What do you want to see in a new Pets game pack? Let us know in the comments below!

About the author

Cassie3k

My name is Cassie and I'm originally from France! I live in PA and I mainly freelance as an illustrator. I absolutely love drawing, but my other hobbies include cooking, playing lots of video games and hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Hedgehogs Ferrets all sorts of Parrots not just Macaws and Cockatoos. Ringnecks as well and Parakeets, Conures. I hope they keep Pitbulls too. Also the option to have a raccoon as a pet. I had to download a raccoon looking cat for TS3 it was cute! I also had a fox looking dog. We also NEED farm animals like goats and bunnies. But the bigger animals like goats and horses/pigs can be maybe playable?

I want to also see farm animals too and of course all these options including the options from sims 2 and 3, or maybe even a zoo just to make things different.. but i’d be happy having pets in Sims 4 for sure!

I would love for there to be more furried exotic pets!, such as Foxes, Ferrets, and Even Squirrles owo. And if not in the first expansion why not make it a stuff pack to the pets ones :), like Sims 4 Exotic Pets Stuff Pack :D, and the normal one would obviously be The Sims 4 Pets XD.

Playable farm animals, forest animals, I would like to be able to earn money on a farm, pet shop and a dog grooming salon. An outdoor turtle pen would be nice too. I really need animals in my simmers life! 🙂

I was thinking that too… at exhorbitant prices so that only the rich and crazy Sims could own tigers and lions and such. Also, it would be fun if there was a chance for the wild animal to turn on the owner. New way for Sims to die! Death by exotic pet!

I think having the self-employment like we had in the sims 3 pets would be great. Or maybe being able to get a job as a dog walker, or even a pet sitting job would be cool. Oh and MORE Aspersions, as those are greatly needed for our human sims, and having the same for the pets be great. New traits would great for both. New perks from the aspersion store, and maybe one for the pets so they get their own point store. – I’m gonna make a list below of other things including animals for everyone.

1) Dogs, I wanna see ALL the different dog breeds, including wolfdogs,Russian beardogs and Irish wolfhounds. (and i pray their heights are done currently done right), also the return of mixed breeds would be great, like a cocker spinal/Lab mix would so cute (my boyfriend had one and sadly it died) 2) Cats, Same thing as the dogs one. 3) Exotic Pets – They were SO much fun in the sims 3 I’d love to see them again, and maybe Wolves ,Foxes and Owls could be added as options to own. Oh and more snakes would be nice. 4) Adopt a Pet – Rescue pets are the best pets 5) Puppy training – More then just and “AW” option with puppies, make them more involved in a sims life. 6) Pet stores and Adoption Shelters – Wouldn’t be great to place down a building that’ll house your future furry,feathery or leathery best friend? and everything it needs? Cause i think it be great. 7) Pet Careers – I never really played with this enough back in the sims 2. Plus being able to go to work with the pets would be cool, or if they could travel with your sim (if their in the right line of work) would really add more to the game, like the dogs could sniff out clues and evidence or cats if they can be trained for that. Oh and a falconer hobby could be cool. 8) Burglars – In all honesty these guys should have come back with Get To Work, but now they can hopefully be chased away by a four legged protector, or self arrested by the sim (if their a cop) 9) Horses and ponies – They just need to happen, they just have too. and maybe kids can actually ride them (unlike the sims three) 10) A new world – I’m sure this is a given but maybe a revamped Appaloosa springs or a vast country like world for sims that just wanna get away and start a new.

I love the idea of wild animals in Granite Falls! I would love to see pet bunnies and guinea pigs, and exotic reptiles, like bearded dragons or axolotls ❤️ I would also love to see more active careers, like a veterinary clinic or dog grooming salon.

I would love to see a Veterinarian career like how they did with Doctors in the Get to Work expansion. We need more careers we can actually play, and not a title we just send our sims away to everyday.

Puppy or animal dates, like you can set up a play-date/date with you and your loved one! Going to work would be my #1 though as it is defiantly the best and a cool, nice feature! Maybe well they’re adding it, add werewolves? 🙂

I can already garden, so having farm animals would be the best! Like, milking the cows in the morning, then mosey over to the chickens and give ’em a feed before i harvest the eggs. Truffle sniffing pigs would be awesome, too!

I think farm animals could happen if they implement horses, but they would be probably be minimal and probably more like the chicken coop and milking station (or whatever it was called) from The Sims 3 Store. A zoo is just way too big for this game though–or any The Sims game in the future. The game would need to be able to function a lot better than it does currently. I think a zoo is more reserved for a new Zoo Tycoon-type game. However, we could get raccoons back. I don’t think that would be too overwhelming on the game. I’m not sure about other wildlife, though I’d like to see some in Granite Falls.

I would love to see a large selection of small animals (especially a wider variety of parrots since they apply to my real life) and more ways to interact with frogs and the ability to feed fish and play with their tank water. I think that could be do-able… As much as I’d like to see an aviary-type structure for birds that works like the aquariums, I’m not sure if that would work either, but I can dream. Maybe we’ll get a large cage with the ability to house multiple birds and a modder will make my dream come true. Hah

I love this expansion of pets that we expect in the sims 4 and already saliedon in the sims 1,2 and 3 I want that the pets can leave of house to walk and to interact with them and that can have up to 6 pets, Please

Pet careers always felt exploitative to me. But I do want pet stores back! Like in Sims 2, when you would click on the display thing with an animal already inside. I just always loved that, the thrill of going down to the store and adopting your new friend! (And using it to build more of an animal shelter / SPCA thing would be so much fun!) Owning a store where you sell animals and animal items would also be just heaven. The pet store in Sims 3 was okay, and it had a lot of very attractive features, but it felt so sterile without the animals themselves. Every pet store I’ve ever seen sell at least fish and small animals like hamsters.

Speaking of which: more realistic animal interaction! Have the strays running around, yes please; but also have sims walking their dogs (with an actual leash!) pass your house as well as the joggers and the strollers, and have your sim greet both the sim and the dog by giving it their hand to smell, like you would in real life. Have the dogs stay confined to your property, especially in the suburban towns that the Sims 4 team seem so obsessed with. Have mischievous dogs trying to dig under the fence, then getting loose and refusing to come back to your sim — and have a new NPC, the dogcatcher, who might be giving you a call if you can’t retrieve your dog fast enough! Have the dogcatcher picking up stray dogs. Have an actual colony of feral cats, not just one or two running around every so often then leaving, never to be seen again; but an actual colony. Have them keeping your sim up at night with their meowing and screeching, and your sim have to go outside with pots and pans to quiet them down, like they sometimes have to knock on their neighbor’s apartment in San Myshuno.

And yes to wildlife! Our towns feel so barren without squirrels scurrying around, or raccoons knocking over our trashcans! They tried to fill that gap in with the pigeons spawned around San Myshuno and the small critters/birds around Granite Falls, and it helps a lot; but there’s wildlife in urban areas, as well, and I’d love to see things like that happen. The smaller ones can even be spawners, I don’t mind! But also deer and raccoons, and bring back the bunnies menacing my garden!

I would really love the inclusion of zoos, farms and horse stables, where my sim can work as a zoo keeper, farmer or groom. I think some more exotic pets such as micro pigs and donkeys. I would also love to see small animals like rabbits, hamsters and guinea pigs to be more accessible and have outdoor pens and cages that they can be moved to from inside cages. Pet shops, dog salons etc would be amazing. I would love to own my own pet shop and have the ability to sell puppies and kittens and also have an interactive rescue centre where I can go to choose a pet. Just a wider variety of animals and jobs for the animals like working with their master as a police dog. Lots of buildings and things that work with them too. Just having the cats, dogs and horses would be a little boring and if they are going to do a pets, it should be a lot bigger and better than sims 3.

I’d also like to have dog agility and the ability to have small horses that children can learn to ride on such as shetlands. They would be so cute and fluffy. Maybe the ability to lead a small horse while riding a big one. Pets should be a lot more interactive too especially with puppies and kittens. I would love to have the ability to house train them to add realism and have more sizes and breeds of dog. HAND BAG DOGS!!!!!! I would love to have a dog in a handbag in sims. I would love to be able to have more animals too (maybe not a set amount so I can be the crazy cat lady and have 50 cats) :-). Be able to look for homes for offspring of a pet rather than sending them for adoption but invite people to have a pet. Be able to have riding lessons on a horse and go to a ranch and actually have a visible lesson with an instructor. Maybe have stunt riding too. Visible competitions would be nice.

Love the ideas so far. I would personally love to see an option to sell puppies/kittens etc to other sims, just like in real life. Instead of having to put them up for adoption, have Sims call you and knock at your door etc. Being able to put an ad in the newspaper or online or something to arouse interest.

I’d like to have adoption animals not show their traits, it would be more realistic and more of a gamble. I also think it would be cool to have exotic animals most people haven’t heard of and have to study books about them or experiment to care for them properly.

I’m really hoping for horses and ponies, but just don’t think it’s likely to happen without there being another world created for them.The beauty of the horses in TS3 was the ability to create 64 x 64 equestrian lots, edit worlds for the horses and for the IRL horse people, download the vast amount of horsey cc created by other real life riders etc.I cannot stand the very limited maps and loading screens in TS4 as it is(I loved the continuous map in TS3) so can’t imagine how they’d make horses/farm animals etc possible without a world specifically for the larger animals. For people who don’t ride in real life/know anything about horses it may be enough fun in game to stick a horse in a tiny stable, let it randomly wander around town and have their sims just ride for fun on top of other game content like career/hobbies/skills/collections (As is intended by EA, I’m not hating xD) but those of us who do mod, cc and really ‘play horse’ on the sims 3 by making the equines, their tack, objects, world and lots realistic, we would probably be very disappointed with whatever they may provide in sims 4.The modded horse community for TS3 is multicultural, worldwide and *enormous* and there is so much gorgeous cc out there for it so if EA intend to encourage that with TS4 they’ll have to really pull it out of the bag, or people may just go back to sims 3 to play with pets, as I have already done.I now only play TS4 for the flawless cc and Get To Work as to me it just still hasn’t beat TS3 regardless of graphics capabilities and add ons. I know EA don’t design specific packs to suit the niche communities alone, but it would be a let down :/ Again, regular players who aren’t really horsey may still LOVE to see them come to sims 4 and I’m sure it would still be super fun for the vast majority, but I’m not hopeful in terms of them producing something to satisfy the enormous horsey sims community who spend 95% of their game play training, showing, breeding and using cc. Otherwise for dogs, cats, small mammals and exotics I would be super excited to see what can be brought to TS4!

I would and have always loved the idea of a homestead expansion. I want cows, chickens, and horses. I want my sims to learn to bottle and preserve too. Seeing deer would be cool, but I totally would like the farm more.

Farm animals. Horses dairy cows beef cows pigs. Milking parlor horse trainer veterinarian career that you can go to with your sim. Cats dogs wild animals. Maybe they could do a farming expansion where you can actually plant fields ect.

i would like the farm life too like cow and sheep horses too chiken rabitts you can have like the milk or the whool or their meat XD I reay want the farm life like their is no technology having your own farm and where everything is like manual their is only traditional town and interactions also they can return the phone and the newspaper and the phone in the house maybe writting letters too

It makes me so happy reading through old news where people went crazy over leaks and things found in code, and here we are 😀 With Cats and Dogs coming out in November, and raccoons and foxes being added, I can’t wait 🙂 Hopefully El Bandito will return! XD